Iceland seeks speedy progress in EU bid

Iceland will seek to open all 35 policy chapters of its membership talks with the European Union within the next 12 months, Össur Skarphéðinsson, Iceland’s foreign minister, has said.

Skarphéðinsson spoke in Brussels on Monday (27 June) after the two sides launched accession talks by opening four chapters. The next accession conference is scheduled to take place in October.

Skarphéðinsson acknowledged concerns that Icelanders might turn down EU membership in a referendum after the talks conclude. He said that a ‘Yes’ vote will depend on whether Iceland can reach a deal on fisheries with Spain, whose fishing industry is keen on getting access to Iceland’s rich stocks of cod and haddock.

Iceland’s fishermen are worried that opening the fertile waters surrounding the north Atlantic island will lead to overfishing by EU fleets. A reform of the EU’s fisheries policy, to be proposed in July, is not expected to ease Icelanders’ concerns.

However, Iceland has itself been accused of overfishing mackerel migrating through its waters. Maria Damanaki, the European commissioner for fisheries, has announced that she will propose trade sanctions against Iceland and the Faroe Islands – a self-ruling part of Denmark – in October because the two territories unilaterally increased their quotas. At a meeting of EU fisheries ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday (28 June), Ireland complained that the EU was acting too slowly on the issue.

Icesave

Iceland’s bid to join the EU also faces potential delays because of an unresolved row with the Netherlands and the UK over compensation for savings lost when the Icesave bank collapsed in 2008. Iceland’s application for membership in July 2009 was motivated in part by the implosion of its banking sector the previous autumn, but Icelanders have cooled on the prospect of membership since then.

Iceland’s membership talks are expected, in principle, to proceed smoothly on most other issues. Iceland is a member of the European Economic Area – an extension of the EU’s internal market to non-members Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway – and of the EU’s Schengen area of borderless travel. This means that Iceland is already applying EU law in many fields, which sets it apart from the other membership candidates in south-east Europe.

Two of the four chapters opened on Monday – on science and research and on education and culture – were provisionally completed. Talks continue on the other two chapters, on public procurement and on information society and media.